The present application relates generally to the field of vehicle airbags. More specifically, the application relates to a deflector for an inflatable airbag for deflecting particulate emitted from an inflator to prevent the formation of holes in the vehicle airbag.
An inflatable airbag that uses an inflation device that generates gas through pyrotechnic ignition, stored gas or combination thereof typically requires diffusion of the gas into an airbag cushion to properly inflate the cushion and preserve the integrity of the cushion fabric. In a typical inflatable airbag, the inflation device ignites to burn a solid propellant, which turns to liquid and then to gas in order to inflate the airbag cushion. This approach is known to result in post deployment holes in a pelvic chamber of a side impact airbag cushion during +85C+100C static deployment tests, which can cause undesired integrity issues. The need for a deflector is especially apparent in high pressure systems, fast deploying systems, or systems where gas generation creates large amounts of heat and/or particulate from the combustion process.
Current airbags include diffusers that employ an open path diffusion method where inflation gasses have direct line of sight with the outlet passages of the gas diffuser. This line of sight can be from several directions, side to side (e.g., a loop diffuser, as shown in FIG. 8), directional in only one direction (e.g., to the bottom, as shown in FIG. 9), or multi-directional (e.g., a gas sleeve, as shown in FIG. 10). However, with each of the existing types of diffusers, the inflation gas only changes directions one time before exiting the diffuser. The diffusers are designed to deny any particulate byproducts from the gas generation process emitted by an inflator access into an airbag cushion via the change in direction the inflation gas takes before inflating the airbag cushion. However, diffusers display leak points or areas where particulate byproducts emitted from the inflator can reach the airbag cushion and create large holes in the airbag cushion.
It would be desirable to provide a deflector that deploys into an angled profile so as to deflect any particulate byproducts emitted from the inflator into to a specific portion of a diffuser, preventing the particulate byproducts from reaching the airbag cushion.